In Benny’s Video — the middle child of Michael Haneke’s Glaciation Trilogy, flanked by The Seventh Continent (1989) and 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994) — Benny (Arno Frisch), a disaffected 14-year-old obsessed with cruel videotapes and surveillance footage, commits an atrocious act of violence. When his wealthy and detached parents (Angela Winkler and Ulrich Mühe) become caught up in the crime, the three are forced to face the brutality of Benny’s inner world. Commenting on how screen culture has desensitized us beyond recognition, Benny’s Video invites us to witness, in excruciating closeup, the neuroses we sculpt from our viewing habits. In my view, this film creates a perfect trio alongside Atom Egoyan’s Family Viewing (1987) and Olivier Assayas’s Demonlover (2002). (SAFFRON MAEVE)
Content warnings: animal cruelty, vivid acts of violence